A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace. CONFUCIUS

Friday 14 March 2008

Sucked Into A Vortex Of Blogs

OK, it's confession time. I've never used this blog before as a platform to air personal problems. I've never given a blogworld exclusive on my hamster's latest digestive ailment. I've never blogged about my last visit to Tesco's, that shop-cathedral of our consumer culture - it's no accident the trolleyways are called aisles. (Bloody awful, if you really want to know - it was jam-packed with screaming kids and I left in a suicidal mood!) I've never yet talked about my dysfunctional family, personal angsts and phobias, my 50th birthday party. But the time has come. To come clean. To get something off my chest I've been suppressing far too long. I must admit it now. I'm sure I'll feel better afterwards. It'll be a relief, I'm sure, to release this news to the anonymous yet surprisingly intimate virtual world. The truth is: I'm blog-addicted.

Beating The Bounds summed it up nicely: ...after about 5 minutes of surfing and blogreading... in the non-virtual world several hours have passed.

You could say that, working from home, it's too easy for me to get distracted from professional humdrum computer work and sink into the mad, opinionated, anarchic, strangely beautiful blogworld. Perhaps I need to get right away again - and do another 1000 mile trip through the wilds of nowhere. But even on the Camino I found I was blogchecking on some dusty, superannuated computer in a bar in the middle of a Spanish cornfield.

I fear I must limit myself to just a few blogs a day, wean myself off gradually like a druggie on methadone substitute. Just visit the blogs I really, really like. I confess: I'm a blogaholic. And I can't blame genetics, because blogs didn't exist for my parents. But could I pass this condition on to my children? Have I set in motion a catastrophic change in my DNA?

Gosh, I feel so much better for that. But I've got to go now. Must follow that link...

4 comments:

am said...

Along those lines, I've noticed that I get a caffeine-like effect when I read my favorite blogs, one after the other.

:-)

If I tried to spend the same amount of time reading a book, I would find myself getting drowsy no matter how much I liked the book.

The stimulating effect must have something to do with the electronic element of reading blogs and the fact that one can join in a written conversation at any time.

Great cartoon!

The Solitary Walker said...

But without the headache?!

:-)

I definitely think that reading a book just before bedtime is the best way of getting to sleep at night.

Two yards of lard said...

Heh heh.
It seems that you have a book habit too. There may be no hope for you.

Working from home must be lethal - I don't think that I would get anything done.

I'm calling it a day now.....well after I've StumbledUpon just one more really interesting site....

John Hee said...

Take on RSS feeder daily and retire
;-)